Judge wants explanation about photo from Stone
The federal judge overseeing Roger J. Stone Jr.’s criminal case on Tuesday ordered a hearing to consider revoking his bail after he posted a photo on Instagram of the judge with what appeared to be the crosshairs of a gun near her head.
The judge, Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington, asked Stone, a longtime adviser for President Donald Trump, to explain to her at the hearing, set for Thursday, why she should not modify his gag order or otherwise change the conditions of his release in light of the Instagram post.
Stone had suggested in the post that Jackson, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, would be biased in presiding over his case. Screenshots of the post, which was later deleted, circulated rapidly on social media on Monday.
Last week, Jackson imposed a limited gag order on Stone, ordering that he must refrain, in the vicinity of the courthouse, from talking to the news media or making statements that “pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case.” Lawyers and witnesses in the case are prohibited from making those sorts of statements anywhere.
Jackson wrote in the order that she believed the gag order was appropriate because of the risk that “public pronouncements” by those involved in the case could inflame the crowds that have gathered outside the court proceedings.
She added that the narrow gag order imposed on Stone could be altered, a point that she reiterated on Tuesday in the wake of the Instagram post.
In a court filing on Monday, Stone apologized for the post, writing that the “photograph and comment today was improper and should not have been posted.”
“I had no intention of disrespecting the Court and humbly apologize to the
Court for the transgression,” he said.
But in statements posted to his Instagram account, he took a different tone. He said that the photo of Jackson had been “misinterpreted” and was a “random photo taken from the internet.” He also claimed that the image of crosshairs was the logo of the website where he had found the photo.
Stone told The Washington Post, meanwhile, that the symbol near Jackson’s head was a “Celtic symbol.” And on a broadcast with the conspiracy site Infowars, he referred to the image as an “occult symbol.”
The Instagram post was not the first time Stone had transformed his court proceedings into a spectacle. As he emerged from a courthouse after his arrest, he threw up his arms in Richard M. Nixon’s trademark double peace sign.
Stone’s lawyers did not
immediately return requests for comment Tuesday afternoon. He told The Post that he planned to attend Thursday’s hearing.
Last month, Stone pleaded not guilty to felony charges in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He was charged with obstruction of justice, witness tampering and making false statements.
Mueller’s indictment accused Stone of lying to investigators for the House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own inquiry into the Russian election interference campaign, and of pressuring another witness in that investigation to lie to the committee.
The indictment also said that Trump campaign officials dispatched Stone to make contact with WikiLeaks during the summer of 2016.